Saturday, July 26, 2008

You know me, I can't really leave well enough alone on my older stuff. Tonight I had a bad SL crash and wasn't able to log back on for a while, so I got a little bored in photoshop and made a new header set up for the blog. Whaddya think? I especially love the black and silver Columbina with the wings, it just looks so luxurious. But with that I didn't have any room for my title/logo so I tucked that in right on top of the posts. I might switch it back if I get bored with it, but I like it for now.

Oh, my mother reminded me of this. I did end up doing some alterations upon the request of the artistic director of the SWCC, so here is the finished product that will be going out on their postcards and invitations :)

They really loved the silver hair on the original, and the vines around her wrists, so I took the pictures again to change that. She looks much more ethereal now, less human, and I think the vines (from Shiny Things!) do a lovely job of making her seem very fae-like.

I also did some cute little cut out fairy pictures for the interior of the card, to place around the text and just be an accent in general . They were so cute that I didn't want to leave them all alone on a black background. They needed a picture to be a part of. I dug around in my rough snaps and found another one of Pan that would be really cute to add them to, so here's a bonus picture complete with pixies!Make sure you click that one so you get to see their cute little faces.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Update on the drama, the notices have been removed from the history of that group, but I can still rez the stolen items. I called the concierge again to give them a poke about that, in my original report I said that having the items removed would be the best possible outcome. It didn't take me long to decide that that is going to be the only outcome I'm happy with. So I'm going to keep poking them until it's done and they're blacklisted, but at least the concierge I spoke to today said that she'd see to it.

On a lighter note, if anyone read the comments of my last post, Stella of the Southwest Care Center in Santa Fe wanted to use a picture of mine for invitations to a Midsummer Night's Dream themed benefit. I'd just like to say again I'm flattered, and that I took her up on her offer with a bonus! I made them a set of pictures especially for their invitations, that are hopefully far more fitting to such a formal event. Since I just finished them and I have nothing else to show for the past few days, I'll share them here :) With the aspect ratio and the alignment, they actually make perfect desktops. I guess it's time for me to switch out the old harlequin pic!

Since I just finished them and it's late/early, I don't know if I'll be doing any changes to them. But as they are now I'm quite happy and I hope you guys like 'em ^.^

Friday, July 18, 2008

I've felt my paranoia level spike over the past couple of days, which I guess is only expected. Something that stuck with me: when I stated in the group that had received the ill gotten loot that it was mine, someone actually had the gall to say "it didn't look anything like the SLX ad". Obviously they didn't even click the link, but it made me want to go back and point to irrefutable proof that I was the original maker. With most of the Piratey Goodness collection, I stamped the sculpted prims with my signature so anyone looking in the object tab would see my name. But older masks like the Guy Fawkes and pretty much anything that I haven't made quite recently have pretty random object names and no stamps on their sculpts.

I'm feeling demoralized and uninspired, so rather than retreat into Cute Overload, the SLU forums, or Guild Wars, I've been wanting to go back and make myself feel a little better by stamping my sculpts. Since I'll be going over old territory once again, I wanted to ask you guys how you felt about my possibly scripting the old masks where it's appropriate. This would raise the average price of my masks, but obviously it would be like buying a fatpack with each one.

This sort of project would take some effort, I'd need to redo my onrez/slx listings and items, as well as touch up vendor pictures to include more information. I'd be touching up mostly the masks, because those are the items I know for sure are sticking around for a while. Let me know with a few comments if you'd be willing to pay about 75-150 more per mask to have every color included, and if this is how you'd like me spending some of my time. I'll definitely be stamping my masks either way though.

Thanks again for your kind words and your support, I've been snarky and grumpy and I'm still waiting on a final resolution. The copybotter and his alt are banned, but I won't pretend that I think he's permanently gone. I'm waiting for the items to be blacklisted, and if they aren't in two days some poor Linden concierge is going to be getting an earful.

Monday, July 14, 2008

It seems that that sign invited drama. It was my own fault, thinking about it so much I must have invoked Murphy's Law. The observant Hirokii Hyun sent me a notecard this evening, which was a notification that my Desperado Hat and Guy Fawkes mask had both been copybotted. The worst part: that they were distributed with full permissions in a group with over eight hundred members. This left me shaking, upset, and panicked. It's the thing you pray will never, ever happen to you.

I took a breath, and realized... I'm a concierge level customer damnit. I have the Linden hotline right there on my support screen, and if there's any time to call it, that's now. I made a support ticket and called the concierge support, and through that my ticket got immediate attention. I requested that the item ID's be removed, and that they be removed from the group notices immediately. I was also told that I could have a scanned version of my signed DMCA notice added to my ticket, and so I quickly wrote one up (not too quickly, I made sure to spell check and dot my i's). I'll be sending the physical DMCA tomorrow along with images, as well as having the image on my ticket. I'm now waiting on Linden action regarding the items.

In my panic though, I didn't know where else to turn, left in suspense and not sure when the Lindens would act, I was waiting for responses to my ticket, refreshing the page and wanting to make sure that the thief was thwarted. I banned him from my land, I sent an abuse report... but I knew that AR's are very, very rarely responded to immediately. Unless they're done by many people.

I sent a notice requesting my friends, my loyal customers, my Illusionists and members of Masqueraderie to send their own abuse reports on the thief and his alt. All of a sudden a rush of IM's in the group channel were asking for details, expressing their support and their outrage at the thief. In less than a half hour, his name was removed from search. Less than five minutes after that, as the group turned their AR's against his copybot alt, that name disappeared too.

I just want to say I have never seen that quick a response from the Lindens. I've seen swarms of fashionistas descend like a plague of righteous AR'ing locusts, and never seen a response like that. Abuse reports can still take a day or two, or at least a few hours(!) to be processed, even when filed en masse by angry shopping addicts. I've heard that even then, sometimes the culprits are only suspended, despite clear copybot abuse. I have simply never seen anything like that happen, which means you guys are clearly Extra Special Grade A Awesomesauce made from freshly grown organic Awesome. Just knowing that all of you showed such overwhelming support that the Lindens had to panic and remove his names just to stem the unending tide of reports made me feel so protected, grateful, and much more likely to sleep well tonight.

In honor of that support, and the incredible power you guys showed together, I pulled something appropriate from my inventory that I was working on, and sent it as a very grateful thank you

I feel very much a part of a family of wolves right now. And wolves protect their own. Thank you for baring your fangs when I needed it most.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Ok so apparently I win the "under a rock" award for my ignorance to the existence of the Footwear Expo, especially when, looking today, there were blog posts after blog posts saying how exciting everyone was for its opening today.

Happily, I have friends who are more in the know than I am! Delora Starbrook IM'd me asking if I'd like a preview and come see the expo, and of course I suddenly was wondering why I hadn't heard about it, and why didn't I have a stall! After all, I just released all my kickass pirate boots! Luckily Delora and Phoenix just baaarely squeezed me in on the Rezzable Explore sim. Normally I like to release something new or make something special for the expos I participate in, but given that I just had a few short hours, I went for something simple. Vendors were asked to donate proceeds of one or a few of their items for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and so I pulled something together last minute.

They're simple and minimalist, but they have nice clean lines and I hope they'll suit anyone in a blue mood.

I set out my pirate boots my harlequin boots, and my old bard boots. I'm not sore about not being invited, I know I'm much better known for other things. I'm starting to realize how odd it is for me to have such a range of items that I'm eligible for.. what, four different yearly conventions? O.o It's a little overwhelming, but at least I know where my priorities lie (unless they start a hat convention).

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

There's been a general buzz about content theft over the past month, there was that whole fiasco with Minnu Palen, and just today I stumbled upon a SL Exchange advertisement for a big hive of copybotted skins. Well, that put the thought into my head that I'd like to make a statement somehow that my art is my own, and that I will tenaciously protect them from direct theft or duplication. But I'm never one to do things conventionally, and boards with words on them aren't really my style. So I set out on the hunt for something different, and came up with a delightful way to get across my message.

Hopefully, it might get a more visceral reaction from anyone tempted ;)

It may be macabre, but I don't think anyone can deny it's creative... and admit it, you think it's funny :)~

Monday, July 7, 2008

It looks like I might not be completing a couple more pirate hats, at least not quite yet (it might still be my next release). Right now I found myself moved to work on my apartment complex, which I had the rough idea for having in a tree with stone towers around it. Well, once I finished my pirate stuff and after taking a short break, suddenly my idea took off. All of a sudden things are coming together beautifully (for once, damnit) with this build. I keep working on it late into the night and seeing the sun come up as I tweak these lovely vaulted platforms. So far it has a really nice flow, and although people won't have much privacy, they'll have one hell of a view.

This new build emphasizes even more that feel of a commune, of a bunch of hippy artists living in a tree. It's all connected, there are no doors, yet there are still isolated platforms where you can have your own personal space and set up your furniture, and be to yourself if you need it.

It was working so well with the tree, that I decided I would take a moratorium on the stone towers idea (not completely thrown out, I might still use them) and just make another couple of enormous trees, and have a tree top town connected with rope bridges. It really is something I've never seen anything like in SL and I think it'll give the feel of living in Lothlorien, which just goes along with my hobbit hole :) I'll post more pictures as I make more progress.

Friday, July 4, 2008

So, I'm American, and in America we have a tradition of importing insanely tacky, cheap, ridiculous garish clothes with our flags all over it from China. In honor of this tradition, I give you something cheap ('cause you didn't need to pay for it), garish (it has SEQUINS!), and ridiculous (it's BEEG).

Bonus points, 'cause if your Australian, British, or a French cosmonaut, this hat will suit your patriotic needs as well ;)

Given out as a freebie to Masqueraderie, if you'd like it you can join up and nab it out of notices in the next 14 days :)

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